''The Ballad of the Canal'' or ''The Canal Ballad'' (Chinese: 运河谣) is a 2012 opera by composer

Yin Qing Yin, Qing () is a Chinese composer. His folk-music based opera ''The Ballad of Canal ''The Ballad of heCanal'' or ''The Canal Ballad'' (Chinese: 运河谣) is a 2012 opera by composer Yin Qing based on Chinese folk music. The libretto was supp ...

based on

Chinese folk music Music of China refers to the music of the Chinese people, which may be the music of the Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, ma ...

as well as Western opera styles. The libretto was supplied by playwrights Huang Weiruo and Dong Ni, and is a love story during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

that celebrates the

Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal (, or more commonly, as the「大运河」("Grand Canal")), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. Starting in Beijing, it passes ...

, the longest canal in the world. The opera premiered at China's National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in 2012. The use of Chinese folk music within an opera was a departure from the NCPA's previous western-influenced Chinese-language operas. NCPA's in-house audio visual company released a "making-of" documentary, including footage of rehearsals, in July 2017. On September 9, 2023, a production of the opera from the NCPA, conducted by Lu Jia, was broadcast across the U.S. and elsewhere on the

WFMT WFMT is an FM broadcasting, FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk music, folk. The station is managed by Window to the World Communications, In ...

Radio Network Opera Series.https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2023/09/02/feature-operas-from-china-to-be-aired-in-radio-broadcast-across-us

References

External links

Synopisis
Chinese western-style operas Operas set in imperial China Operas 2012 operas {{opera-stub